The present invention relates to sandwich type structural materials, particularly to light weight core material of the sandwich type, and more particularly to a core material pattern which utilizes star and hexagonal shaped cells.
Sandwich constructions involve a light weight core material that supports the faces and transfers load between them. The sandwich constructions generally utilize low density core materials. The elastic mechanical behavior for low density materials allows for deformation due to the flexibility of the core material when utilized in sandwich type constructions.
The traditional core material is of a triangular cell pattern, and more recently of a honeycomb (hexagonal) cell pattern. However, the triangular or hexagonal cell patterns of core materials do not easily conform to curved shapes needed to fabricate curved sandwich material panels. Thus, there has been a need for a core material pattern which supports the faces of the sandwich construction materials and transfers loads between the faces, while being sufficiently flexible so as to conform easily to curved shapes. The need has been satisfied by the present invention which involves a core material of a star/hexagonal pattern which allows easy conformation to curved shapes.